The Week at a Glance
Posted: Wednesday February 10, 1999 03:11 PM
The Games to Watch | The Story Lines
The Bandwagon | The Avery Watch
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AP
Men's Top 25
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1. Duke |
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2. UConn |
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3. Auburn |
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4. Cincinnati |
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5. Michigan St. |
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6. Stanford |
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7. Maryland |
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8. Kentucky |
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9. UCLA |
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10. Arizona |
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11. St. John's |
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12. UNC |
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13. Ohio St. |
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14. Utah |
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15. Wisconsin |
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16. Miami (Fla.) |
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17. Indiana |
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18. Syracuse |
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19. Iowa |
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20. Coll. of Charleston |
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21. Purdue |
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22. Minnesota |
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23. Florida |
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24. Kansas |
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25. New Mexico |
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By Dan Shanoff, CNN/SI
NCAA Tournament Bubble Update
With less than a month to go before Selection Sunday, here's a handy guide
to the haves and have-nots of BubbleWorld -- who's on, who's off, who'll go to
the Big Dance and who will settle for the
NIT.
Remember, 30 conferences get automatic bids for their tournament champions
(except the Pac-10 and the Ivy, which award the regular-season champ the
automatic invitation), leaving 34 at-large bids to be handed out by the NCAA
Tournament Selection
Committee.
ACC
Projected Invitations: 5
Locks: Duke, Maryland,
UNC
Skinny: Don't let attrition in league play fool you -- the ACC gets at least
five, though two of the following will back
in:
The
Bubble:
Florida State (12-10,
5-5)
N.C. State (15-8,
5-6)
Georgia Tech (13-10,
4-7)
Wake Forest (12-10,
3-7)
Virginia (13-11,
3-8)
Clemson (13-10,
2-8)
Atlantic
10
Projected Invitations:
3
Locks:
--
Skinny: Lofty preseason hopes dashed by league-wide poor play. GW, Temple and
Xavier are near locks, and that could be
it.
The
Bubble:
Temple (15-7,
9-1)
Xavier (16-7,
8-2)
George Washington (14-6,
8-2)
Rhode Island (13-10,
6-4)
Big
East
Projected Invitations:
5
Locks: UConn, Miami, St. John's, Syracuse,
Villanova
Skinny: Down year? Hardly. The Beast will land five bids. Unless one of the
following pair heats up straight through the Big East Tournament, the locks
above are
it.
The
Bubble:
Rutgers (15-7,
7-5)
Providence (14-9,
7-6)
Big
Ten
Projected Invitations:
6
Locks: Michigan State, Ohio State,
Wisconsin
Skinny: Forget the talk about eight invites. Try six. Northwestern would be the
NCAA Selection Committee's fave because the 'Cats have never been
Dancing.
The
Bubble:
Northwestern (14-6,
6-4)
Iowa (15-6,
6-5)
Indiana (18-7,
5-5)
Minnesota (14-6,
5-5)
Purdue (16-7,
4-5)
Big
12
Projected Invitations:
4
Locks:
--
Skinny: Surprised there are no locks yet? Don't be -- Kansas ain't what it used
to be, and Texas has come on strong in league play. Look for Big 12 to land four
bids. For now: Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma State and
Texas.
The
Bubble:
Texas (14-9,
9-1)
Kansas (16-6,
8-2)
Missouri (17-5,
8-3)
Oklahoma State (16-6,
7-3)
Nebraska (15-8,
7-3)
Kansas State (15-8,
4-6)
C-USA
Projected Invitations:
2
Locks:
Cincinnati
Skinny: Weak C-USA ends up with just a couple of slots: Cincy and, for now,
UAB.
The
Bubble:
UAB (17-7,
8-3)
UNC Charlotte (15-7,
7-3)
Louisville (12-7,
7-3)
St. Louis (13-11, 7-4)
DePaul (12-9,
6-5)
Pac-10
Projected Invitations:
5
Locks: Arizona, Stanford,
UCLA
Skinny: Starting to see some separation for last two spots. Washington's win
over UCLA was
big.
The
Bubble:
Washington (14-7,
7-4)
Arizona State (13-10,
5-6)
SEC
Projected Invitations:
5
Locks: Auburn, Florida,
Kentucky
Skinny: Arkansas would get in on rep, Tennessee on cachet. The others are on the
outside looking
in.
The
Bubble:
Tennessee (14-7,
6-4)
Georgia (14-9,
5-6)
Mississippi (17-7,
7-4)
Mississippi State (16-8,
6-5)
Arkansas (16-7,
5-5)
WAC
Projected Invitations:
4
Locks: New Mexico,
Utah
Skinny: Two others will join the Lobos and Utes. It'll probably come down to
UNLV, TCU and
Tulsa.
The
Bubble:
Colorado State (13-6,
3-4)
Fresno State (17-7,
6-2)
UNLV (14-7,
7-1)
Rice (14-7,
5-4)
TCU (15-7,
3-5)
Tulsa (17-7,
5-4)
UTEP (14-8,
6-3)
Wyoming (14-6,
5-4)
Others
Teams from the "mid-major" or "small" conferences
usually have to win their postseason tournament to make it to the NCAAs. Here
are a few teams that have a shot at making the NCAA field with an at-large
invitation, if they don't win their league's tournament. (The formula to find
these special few is easy: a lot of victories plus a tough nonconference
schedule that includes a few wins over "quality" opponents -- teams
from the traditional power
conferences).
Charleston (22-2) AP Top 25
darling
Gonzaga (19-5) Cracked coaches' Top
25
Miami, Ohio (17-4) Class of MAC has All-American Wally
Szczerbiak
Siena (19-4) No. 34 -- in
RPI
SW Missouri State (16-7) Spurned last
year
Keeping us honest, here are the
numbers:
39 invites go to teams from the nine traditional "power conferences" listed
above (nine automatic bids and 30 at-large
slots).
21 other automatic bids go to mid-major- and small-conference tournament
champs.
That leaves us with a four-invitation cushion to give to a worthy
"Other" team -- a mid-major- or small-conference team with a gaudy
record and quality nonconference opponents -- that gets upset during its
conference tournament, or to be used following a freakish
power-conference-tournament upset that requires the kind of justice that can
only be dispensed through an at-large
invite.
| The Games to Watch |
Northwestern at Wisconsin, Feb.
10
Why you should care: Wildcats, looking for first-ever NCAA bid, bring
momentum to Madison to face conference-title
contender.
Players to Watch: Northwestern C Evan Eschmeyer, Wisconsin SG Sean Mason,
Northwestern PG David Newman, Wisconsin PG Ty
Calderwood
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UCLA at Stanford, Feb.
11
Why you should care: Cardinal, coming off loss to UConn, must rebound to
stay in hunt for Pac-10 title and NCAA No. 1
seed.
Players to Watch: UCLA PG Baron Davis, Stanford PG Arthur Lee, Stanford
PF Mark Madsen, UCLA SG Earl
Watson
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North Carolina at Maryland, Feb.
13
Why you should care: With Duke running away from the rest of the ACC,
this matchup of two teams in the AP Top 12 is for league
runner-up.
Players to Watch: Maryland C Lonnie Baxter, UNC PG Ed Cota, Maryland SG
Steve Francis, UNC PF Kris
Lang
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| The Story Lines |
Who's No. 1? Part 1:
After the way Duke has been slicing through the ACC
this season -- particularly through the league's next best team, Maryland --
you'll hear no complaints from us about the Blue Devils' ascension to No. 1 in
every poll. But a strong case could continue to be made for dethroned (and No.
2) Connecticut, which put together the most impressive win of the season by any
team: a nationally televised 70-59 thumping of Stanford in Palo Alto without
All-America shooting guard Richard
Hamilton. .
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Who's No. 1? Part 2:
If the writers had their way, the four top seeds in
the NCAA Tournament would go to Duke, UConn, Auburn and Cincinnati -- this
week's top four teams. The RPI -- the NCAA's ranking-of-reference -- jibes with
Duke (1) and UConn (4), but favors Big Ten-leading Michigan State (2) and the
Best of the West, Stanford (3). As the race to be a No. 1 seed heats up over the
next three weeks, these six teams are in a pool clearly ahead of all others.
Watch the strength of the remaining schedule, which favors Michigan State and
Auburn. Stanford is hindered by a lack of a conference tournament, Cincy by a
weak year in Conference USA. The mandate is clear: Win out or else. The
Glance's forecast? Duke in the South, UConn in the East, Michigan State in the
Midwest and Stanford in the
West.
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| The Bandwagon |
| Florida |  | New Kid in
town
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| Auburn | | No. 3? A No. 1 seed in
sight.
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| Khalid El-Amin | | Who's afraid of the
Trees?
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| Kentucky |  | No quality shooting
guard
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CNN/SI Week at a Glance is released every Tuesday throughout the college basketball season.
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Last game: Feb. 6 at Georgia
Tech
